Bureaucracy, Why do we put up with red tape?

Bureaucracy, is a by-product of human activities.

Bureaucracy, is likened to a slum or pollution. A small dwelling maybe created in a jungle by a small family who disposes a little rubbish or waste in the backyard. As more and more people build their houses in the vicinity, more and more rubbish and waste are generated. Without a proper management and technology to control or treat these wastes, a slum, and pollution are the outcomes of such human activities.

However, bureaucracy is not the original aim of the early human activities. In most cases, a new entity or organisation starts with a noble intention to create wealth or value or order. It creates some straightforward rules to govern its intended behaviour. But as it grows in size and complexity, more and more the original rules become red tape.

Hence, bureaucracy does not happen over-night. Rather it grows gradually, usually unknowingly like a cancer growth. It is a resultant by-product of many of our activities. If we are in the above new organisation, we contribute and add on to the "red tape". We create new policies, rules, regulations, record forms, etc. with good intention and justification. But human race is a great activities creator, not "reflector" or "evaluator". We seldom have the habit and discipline to review and look for deeper meaning of what we are doing. We are constantly in quest for "incessant busyness" not "excellence" or "profound knowledge". Hence the old rules or procedures that served certain good purpose at the material time, are out-dated, irrelevant or even conflicting with many others at the present time. Such procedures or red-tape are being preserved by the "system of authority" that we have created. Bureaucracy, then is the absolute reference, replaces the very mission or vision of the entity.

Furthermore Frederick Taylor, had greatly reinforced our thinking pattern in a fragmented manner. Hence in a larger organisation with many "silos", it is more difficult to see in a holistic view the meaning and direction of the whole organisation. Each unit or silo creates its own rules and regulations, hence more and more red tape is the result. A monstrous bureaucracy is born and tightly anchored to whatever we do.

Yes, why do we put up with red tape? Bureaucracy, a by-product of us, is made up of a "bit of us". Then, are we putting up with a "bit of us"?. Rationally, we will say "No!". We believe that it is other department who creates such stupid red tape, not us.

But the reality is that we create, contribute, maintain, perpetuate the bureaucratic system around us. We hope, rather dream that others will "un-entangle" such bureaucratic mess for us. Like the slum dwellers, who perceive themselves as helpless being, forever being "imprisoned" in the slum.

But the state of helplessness will one day create a seed of "awakening", to see a light of better way of managing. With disciplined practice and continuous learning, we will create a vision and develop our leadership attributes "not to put up with red tape" anymore.